While walking in Galicia with Gwyneth Paltrow, Mario Batali spotted a bush full of ripe blackberries, his "favorite fruit in life," and recalled filling the back of his parents' station wagon with buckets of blackberries when he was growing up in Seattle. After getting his mother, Marilyn, to e-mail him her recipe, Mario prepared this luscious pie.

"If I could put a perfect peach on a plate and serve it, I would," says Eric Moshier (an F&W Best New Chef 2000). His peach pie recipe is the next best thing: Roasted fruit, pastry and whipped cream are combined just before serving, to avoid any possibility of a soggy crust.

Paula Haney made pastries at acclaimed Chicago restaurants like Trio before opening her Green City Market stand. She launched her adorable, and adorably named, Hoosier Mama Pie Company, but still has a stand at the market and buys produce there, including the cherries for her stellar pies.

This isn't the kind of ice cream pie you'd make for a kiddie birthday party. Instead of a plain cookie crust, Grace Parisi creates a crispy, chewy one with crumbled gingersnaps, dried pineapple and candied ginger. And instead of the usual caramel or chocolate sauce on top, she prepares a delectable mix of dulce de leche and passion fruit nectar from the supermarket.

When you slice into this delicious pie, don't be surprised by the gap between the filling and the top crust. This happens when a pie is baked at high heat because the crust sets before the fruit in the filling has cooked down.